The Shadowlands Project

I’m ok with the delay of Shadowlands. I had gotten my Atherne copy character to level 58. She would have gotten to 60 but there were several quests which were the breadcrumb to the next area for her that were not working for one reason and another for a week and more.

Because I was only running one character, trying to be very focused, doing all the quests, writing bug reports and comments, I was stuck till there was a fix. My goal had been to try out the Covenants and see how it all worked.

Because of the very linear nature of your progress through the various Covenant lands, being stuck at those junctures so late in the testing was going to be a problem. I haven’t been reading the forums or Wowhead so as to preserve my own impression of how things work.

Now, there was a beta character wipe, and you have the option to go in and test out the level 60 characters, and how exactly the Covenant experience plays out. I don’t expect the delay for release to be long, so I didn’t want to start again with a copied character at 50.

Here’s what I think.

I’m not fond of any of the covenants, having played through all of their introductory areas except just a little of the Venthyr. Those areas and quest lines are quite lengthy, and I think they give you a good feel for each race and what you’re in for.

Each has it’s own philosophical bent.

The Kyrians are supposed to look and feel (?) either like angels or val’kyr. They’re anything but pleasant. The angelic looks just made me think, you can’t fool me after bingeing 15 seasons of Supernatural this year. They seemed to draw quite a bit from the Pandarian sha of anger model.

The Necrolords present as demi-gods who don’t think much of you as you’re puny and not worth their warlike time. Too much saber rattling.

I had high hopes for the Night Fae, thinking Ardenweald was some gorgeous forest area. It’s a forest alright. The fae are right out of Kelethin Forest in EQ2. Those high squeaky voices….I’m dying here. As a plus, there is The Wild Hunt with centaur like creatures who are very cool. They’re all very nature oriented and are trying to save the groves.

The Venthyr were the biggest surprise of all, with a Prince who is a super cartoony mustache twirling villain (I think he’s one, maybe I’m wrong.) This area is like a madness infested Gilneas/Shadowmoon Valley hybrid.

Next post, creating all new level 60 characters to see what life is like at 60.

The Running of the Gnome

This year I decided to try the Running of the Gnomes event on the Scarlet Crusade server. My character was created Thursday and I got her to level 6. I pictured that she’d be in this huge pack of gnomes and no harm would come to her.

By the way, she initially had a soft lavender hair color, then I saw a picture of a past event with all pink haired gnomes. Pink it is. I had to resist playing her too much. You know how appealing new characters are. I also resisted getting her a Tradeskill set. So hard to resist! My plan is/was to delete her after completing the event.

I meant to wait till the event officially started, but I peeked in early, and there were lots of people in the gnome starter area, but no one seemed to be running. Nearby was the npc with the race quest. Click and Accept! Before I knew what was happening I was running through the first banner and the race was on!

There are gnome npcs and markers along the race course to let you know you’re on the right track. The course took an unexpected turn in Elwynn forest near the Brackwell Pumpkin Patch that led right over the river into Duskwood. I knew my level 6 girl would be safe because Elywnn autolevels 1-60, but I thought I’d have some deaths in Duskwood. Luckily, I didn’t die till way on the other side of Darkshire, to a stealthy worgen. This I now know is because the race helpers had cleared the way earlier on in Duskwood.

Right after my first death, I noticed a couple of players flying over head, and then one with a name very like Piglet (thank you, Piglet!) flew ahead and ran interference for my little gnome, killing off predators. Even so, I died to three of the Young Panthers in Northern Stranglethorn.

Near Fort Livingston, my last death was to a stealthed tiger. They’re always going to get you.

And the finish! About 25 minutes to run the distance. Five deaths. Perhaps if I do it next year I’ll go with the crowd. Perhaps I’ll level this character and next year she can run interference for some level 6 gnome 🙂